Details

The monument is the wayside cross on Pinfold Lane set opposite the junction
with Church Street. It includes the socle and shaft of a later medieval cross
currently surmounted on a modern base of two sandstone steps.
The socle or socket stone comprises a dressed magnesian limestone block
measuring 93cm square at the base and 64cm high. The upper half has a
pronounced batter or receding slope which tapers to a narrow octagonal top
section pierced on alternate faces by the corners of the batter. The shaft is
also of magnesian limestone and comprises a tapering octagonal column
measuring 1.28m high. It has a narrow 33cm square pedestal with small
pyramidal stops on alternate faces and there is a bench mark cut into the
south face. The top of the shaft has shallow circular depressions at the
corners which would have housed the pegs that formerly held the missing cross
head in place. The cross is Listed Grade II and is one of a pair in Fishlake
located at either end of the village. The second cross, which is in Trundle
Lane, is the subject of a separate scheduling. Although generally termed
wayside crosses, local tradition has it that they may have been preaching
crosses set up to mark the places where, in the ninth century, St Cuthbert's
body was set down during the funeral procession.
This theory is apparently based on the dedication of the local Norman church
to St Cuthbert.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Wayside crosses are one of several types of Christian cross erected during the
medieval period, mostly from the 9th to 15th centuries AD. In addition to
serving the function of reiterating and reinforcing the Christian faith
amongst those who passed the cross and of reassuring the traveller, wayside
crosses often fulfilled a role as waymarkers, especially in difficult and
otherwise unmarked terrain. The crosses might be on regularly used routes
linking ordinary settlements or on routes having a more specifically religious
function, including those providing access to religious sites for parishioners
and funeral processions, or marking long-distance routes frequented on
pilgrimages.
Over 350 wayside crosses are known nationally, concentrated in south west
England throughout Cornwall and on Dartmoor where they form the commonest type
of stone cross. A small group also occurs on the North York Moors. Relatively
few examples have been recorded elsewhere and these are generally confined to
remote moorland locations.
Outside Cornwall almost all wayside crosses take the form of a `Latin' cross,
in which the cross-head itself is shaped within the projecting arms of an
unenclosed cross. In Cornwall wayside crosses vary considerably in form and
decoration. The commonest type includes a round, or `wheel', head on the faces
of which various forms of cross or related designs were carved in relief or
incised, the spaces between the cross arms possibly pierced. The design was
sometimes supplemented with a relief figure of Christ and the shaft might bear
decorative panels and motifs. Less common forms in Cornwall include the
`Latin' cross and, much rarer, the simple slab with a low relief cross on both
faces. Rare examples of wheel-head and slab-form crosses also occur within the
North York Moors group. Most wayside crosses have either a simple socketed
base or show no evidence for a separate base at all.
Wayside crosses contribute significantly to our understanding of medieval
religious customs and sculptural traditions and to our knowledge of medieval
routeways and settlement patterns. All wayside crosses which survive as earth-
fast monuments, except those which are extremely damaged and removed from
their original locations, are considered worthy of protection.

Though raised up on a modern base and, therefore, not precisely in its
original location, the wayside cross on Pinfold Lane is a good and reasonably
well-preserved example which would have played an important role in religious
festivals and other aspects of village life during the later Middle Ages. Its
importance is increased by its relationship to a second wayside cross, located
at the opposite end of the village.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Morris, J E, West Riding of Yorkshire, (1932), 189
Other
Shackleton Hill, Angela, (1994)

Source: Historic England